threw "private" folder in trash=big trouble

I had and still have this" Private" floder in main stem of hard drive and threw it into trash and all **** broke loose. I could not start up my macbook after and had to reinstall and use time machine to get it working again. The thing is,I don't understand how such a folder that is not even a system folder can do so much harm. Now since recovering through time machine,I have it back again. Could anyone out there enlighten me on this issue. thanks a lot.

I had and still have this" Private" floder in main stem of hard drive and threw it into trash and all **** broke loose. I could not start up my macbook after and had to reinstall and use time machine to get it working again. The thing is,I don't understand how such a folder that is not even a system folder can do so much harm. Now since recovering through time machine,I have it back again. Could anyone out there enlighten me on this issue. thanks a lot.

It IS a system folder, used by the Unix subsystem and is a normal part of the directory hierarchy in Unix-like operating systems.

Well, I just can't believe that it is not marked in any special way. Ok,thank you. That explains why I could not restart the computer. But actually I think if I knew what I was doing as in knowing how to gain access to my trash folder while starting up from another hard drive, I could have put the folder back in place. So,my next question then is, how does one gain this access. I looked and looked through so many folders and could not find how to gain access to the trash folder..thanks for your help.

Well, I just can't believe that it is not marked in any special way. Ok,thank you. That explains why I could not restart the computer. But actually I think if I knew what I was doing as in knowing how to gain access to my trash folder while starting up from another hard drive, I could have put the folder back in place. So,my next question then is, how does one gain this access. I looked and looked through so many folders and could not find how to gain access to the trash folder..thanks for your help.

It is marked by virtue of being a hidden folder.

Oh yes.. in answer to the trash folder…. it's another hidden folder titled .Trash in your home directory.

Just kidding! One of the things you've already discovered is that the OS will recreate the folder if it's missing. Just copying the folder back in place may not be easy as the system will most likely not want to overwrite the "current" private folder. But you may be able to replace the contents of the folder.

In Finder, under the Go menu, select Go To Folder. Enter /Users/youruserid/.Trash as the folder path. A window should open, and if you deleted the Private folder as that user, that's where I'd expect it to be.

Hmm, thanks for the responses. Maybe what I should have done is be more patient when it was restarting. The progress ball was spinning for a good ten min. But maybe it was rewriting these files and it would take some time....I should have come on here to ask questions too before I decided to start from scratch. I thought that I picked up some virus actually....anyway, no harm done, just a couple of days of tenseness..thanks again.

Hmm, thanks for the responses. Maybe what I should have done is be more patient when it was restarting. The progress ball was spinning for a good ten min. But maybe it was rewriting these files and it would take some time....I should have come on here to ask questions too before I decided to start from scratch. I thought that I picked up some virus actually....anyway, no harm done, just a couple of days of tenseness..thanks again.

No sweat. When in doubt, always feel free to ask. There's a wealth of experience and knowledge here, and while sometimes people don't get the answer they want, it's rare that there is no answer or solution to a question or problem.

As a tip, 95% of users will never need to access directories outside of their home folder or /Applications. If you only touch those two, you can be sure that you won't encounter boot problems (there might be a few config files in your ~/Library folder that may cause issues if they're tampered with but such editing/deleting won't prevent booting).